The license thing is so you can watch it from foreign places obviously, the iplayer currently won't allow non-british IP's access and so even if you are british you can't watch your BBC you paid for when you are away from the country a while.

Not that it's not inherent of politicians to abuse anything they can and mess up any fun they detect amongst their people.

I've never quite understood the logic of the TV Licensing stipulations: somehow iPlayer doesn't need a license to use it because the programming is not broadcast live, but if I were to record stuff on a PVR without watching it until a later time (essentially the same function as non-yet-Open-Sauce iPlayer but without DRM) I need a license presumably because the programming is live from the point of view of my PVR. Which is ludicrous.

I agree with the TV license, and that it does provide good value for money for those who chose to watch programming on a television. But this recent move to simulcast the live broadcasts online muddies the waters and could potentially give the BBC some leverage into demanding a license to be paid by all internet users, even those who don't have a TV and don't choose to view BBC programming online - just because they have the option to do so.

I rarely have enough free time to watch TV, but I'm an avid Radio 4 listener. In 1971 the separate radio license was abolished, but I often listen to the live feed online, listen to shows on iPlayer and download the occasional podcast - all without requiring a license. It's only a matter of time before even the BBC's radio output, and possibly all UK internet use, is somehow in need of licensing...

The news clips on bbc.co.uk (now also bbc.com) use doubleclick.com for advertising revenue, bbc is in need of money, with this new system they have the license holder name/address/etc. and can track what they watch online on bbc, which would be very marketable info, now who would trust that after they already are in bed with doubleclick.com?
So you better make a choice if you care if advertisers (and the government too) can track everything you watched before signing up.

Introducing more bandwidth issues and license-info theft to britain, yay.

Another backdoor method of introducing the TV licence to use of the internet.

Still sucks for us expats, I'd have no problem paying for the privelige of watching UK TV online but that obviously is too difficult for the BBC to implement....

"This highlights that only those paying a license fee are legally allowed to watch beeb programmes online."

nope you only need a license fee to watch live broadcasts, whether online or through a tv. watching a show after it's been broadcast through iplayer is fine.

"This highlights that only those paying a license fee are legally allowed to watch beeb programmes online."

And later the BBC will argue that you have access to their programming via the Internet, thus you have to pay for a "TV license" for ever computer with Internet access. Won't happen? Already happened in Germany.

I'm sure they'll use this as an argument that households that don't have a tv, may still have a pc - so therefore would have to pay for a license...